United States v. Jackalow, 66 U.S. (1 Black) 484 (1862), is a U.S. Supreme Court case interpreting the Venue and Vicinage clauses of the United States Constitution. It was an "unusual criminal case" and one of the few constitutional criminal cases from the Taney Court. Jackalow, a mariner from the Ryukyu Kingdom, was suspected of the robbery and murder of the captain of the sloop Spray, Jonathan Leete, and Jonathan's brother Elijah, while the ship was at sea. He was convicted of robbery in the Long Island Sound, but as there was disagreement over the question of jurisdiction between the two judges who heard the post-trial motion (Judge Mahlon Dickerson and Supreme Court Justice Robert Cooper Grier), the case was referred to the Supreme Court by certificate of division.
The Supreme Court directed the circuit court for the District of New Jersey to grant Jackalow a new trial. The Court held that while the trial court should determine the description of the boundaries of New York and Connecticut, the ascertainment of their actual boundaries, and the application of those boundaries to the crime in question, should have been a question of fact for the jury. Jackalow was not retried and was released.
The trial attracted significant media interest. According to The New York Times, "every part in and near the Court room was crowded during the trial." The case is viewed as historically significant because even though it occurred during the American Civil War, the federal courts focused on proper legal procedure and jurisprudence in a case unrelated to the war.
Background
Jonathan T. Leete had captained the schooner Reaper, owned by James Frisbie, and crewed by a man of East Asian origin, John Canoe, commonly known as Jackalow, short for John Low or John Lord. After Jonathan gave up command of the Reaper, he and Jackalow worked on Jonathan's father's farm on Sachem's Head in Guilford, Connecticut, where Jackalow was regarded as family. At some point, while in New York, Jackalow had stolen $100 from Jonathan and fled to New Haven. He was returned to New York by the police, but Jonathan refused to testify against him and rehired him. Jonathan and his brother Elijah J. Leete subsequently bought the 30-ton sloop Spray, funded in part by a mortgage their father took out on his farm. Jonathan (the captain), Elijah, and Jackalow sailed the Spray together for two or three years. By March 1860, Jackalow had sailed with Jonathan for four years.
Sprays final voyage On March 15, 1860, the Spray departed its home port of Guilford on a voyage to New York City, in the company of other vessels. As well as its normal crew of Jonathan, Elijah and Jackalow, there was a passenger on board: Andrew Foote, of Nut Plains. The Spray also carried hay and potatoes on consignment from David Benton of Sachem's Head.
The Spray reached New York City safely and sold its cargo for $500 in gold and bills. Foote returned to Guilford by other means. The Spray set course for Guilford and was seen at various points along the route. One night, she anchored near Norwalk, where cries of "Murder!" and "Open the Cabin Door!" were allegedly heard. Supposedly, Jackalow had locked the cabin door before dispatching Elijah on the deck. Elijah had yelled "Murder!"; and Jonathan, "Open the Cabin Door!" Then, Jackalow was supposed to have shot Jonathan through the cabin skylight, thrown the bodies overboard, and searched the cabin for the money. Alone, Jackalow was further supposed to have sailed the Spray to South Brooklyn, purchased supplies, and then sailed south.
At 2 pm on Wednesday, March 21, the Spray collided with the Lucinda four miles north of Barnegat, New Jersey, knocking a hole in the Sprays bow that resulted in her filling with water; the Lucinda also sustained damage. Capt. Willis of the Lucinda saw no one other than Jackalow (whom he blamed for the collision) on board the Spray, and Jackalow refused to be rescued and taken aboard the Lucinda. Willis observed that the deck of the Spray was strewn with bedding and other articles from the cabin.
That same day, Jackalow, anchored on a nearby yawl boat and was taken aboard the schooner Thomas F. French (of Suffolk, Virginia), captained by James Webb, who believed Jackalow to be a kanaka. (Other accounts call him a lascar.) Jackalow gave contradictory accounts of the fate of the Leetes. He told Webb that Jonathan was sick in the cabin and that Elijah had been knocked overboard by the boom, but he subsequently changed his story, claiming that one brother had fallen overboard from the bowsprit, and the other had been knocked overboard by the mainsheet. Webb sailed to Little Egg Harbor, finding the Lucinda and its captain and hearing Willis's account of the collision. Webb made no attempt to detain Jackalow, who accompanied him ashore in a small row boat before immediately disappearing into a crowd.
The Spray, already stripped of her sails and rigging, and lying on her beam ends, was towed to the New York Harbor. There, the harbor police took charge of the Spray and began retrieving items from the partially submerged cabin, including the captain's bed, which was stained and splattered with blood. A "heavy three-cornered scraper" also recovered was suspected to be the "instrument with which the bloody deed was committed." A pair of unloaded pistols, one with signs of recent discharge, were also recovered. Other items included a small pine box, suspected to be the captain's money box, that had been broken open, but no bodies or money were found.
Jackalow became a wanted man, and his description was widely disseminated. On March 25, news of the fate of the Spray reached Guilford. That same day, the pilot boat George Steers reached the Spray and towed her to Jersey City.
Jackalow's arrest
At 11:30 am, March 27, recognizing his description from a newspaper story, the engineer and brakeman of a train, from Philadelphia to Jersey City, crossing the Hackensack Bridge, spotted Jackalow running towards the woods. First two, then eight, New Jersey police officers went into the woods after him. Around noon, Jackalow was turned away from crossing a railroad bridge in Newark, New Jersey, by workman William Jacobus, who recognized Jackalow. His colleague Henry Wilson mentioned a $1000 reward for Jackalow's arrest, and the pair—joined by John Sanford and John Douglass, and aided by a spy glass—spotted Jackalow heading for the Newark Plank Road. Jacobus and Douglass pursued Jackalow, while Wilson and Sanford took the car to Newark, hired a horse, and set out to intercept him on the road.
The four arrested Jackalow at the toll gate of the Plank Road; he did not respond to "Jackalow" and claimed to be Indian. He was taken to Jersey City by train, arriving at about 4:00 pm. Jackalow was taken to the Jersey City police station, where in search conducted by Assistant Superintendent Woodruff bags of gold and silver worth about $400, were found tied to his person. Jackalow was also wearing Jonathan's coat, which contained Jonathan's memorandum book. Jackalow was taken to the city prison. "As the news spread, people came flocking from all directions, completely filling the stationhouse and blocking the streets around it."
Soon after 5 pm, Jackalow was taken before Recorder Bedford, where Sanford lodged a formal complaint accusing Jackalow of the murders of the Leetes. Jackalow gave his name to the Recorder as "Sam Patch" and his occupation as a crewman on the Spray. Later, Jackalow told a reporter from the New York Herald that the $400 represented his savings, and that his wages had been $30/month for four years.
On Saturday, April 2, the Spray was salvaged, and the stains believed to have been blood were discovered to be vermilion. An examination by Dr. John F. Quidor found "no evidence of a murder having been committed in the cabin." In Quidor's opinion, the blood discovered on a cotton chord belonged to an animal.
Preliminary hearings
Also on April 2, U.S. Commissioner J.P. Vroom, in Jersey City, presided over Jackalow's preliminary hearing. Elizabeth Schenck, an African-American, her sister Ann Louisa Talmadge, and brother-in-law James Talmadge testified that Jackalow had sought board with them, claiming to be an Indian. The court recessed until 2 pm, when Mrs. Electa Lecte and Elizabeth Leete, the mother and sister of Jonathan Leete respectively, appeared. The women identified the Leetes' effects, testified to their relationship with Jackalow, and stated that they had never known him to carry so much money. Upon seeing the women, Jackalow burst into tears and requested to speak with them. Jackalow's lawyer, William Voorhees, refused to allow Jackalow to speak to anyone without his consent.
Chas. H. Ross and Mr. Haybeck then testified to the articles he recovered from the Spray. The prosecutor, William H. Jelliffe, asked for another adjournment to await the arrival of Willis to testify to the collision. Voorhees opposed the adjournment and moved for Jackalow's immediate release on the ground that there was no jurisdiction because no crime had been proved to have been committed. Jeliffe replied that he intended to charge murder, piracy, and running away with a vessel with intent to steal it. Vroom granted an adjournment until Tuesday at 11 am. Jackalow was remanded to the city prison.
On Monday, April 4, U.S. Attorney Garret S. Cannon took over the prosecution and moved that Jackalow be transferred to the U.S. Marshall in the Essex County Jail. Voorhies again objected to jurisdiction, arguing that if the alleged murder was committed in the Long Island Sound it could only be tried in New York. Vroom on the other hand held that a showing of probable cause had been made. Further, he argued that he had jurisdiction on the grounds that the murder was committed between the state of New York and the Norwalk Islands, and Jackalow's robbery had in any case continued until his arrival in Barnegat. Jackalow was remanded to Newark to await the decision of the grand jury.
Jackalow was still incarcerated in the Essex County Jail on July 21. A reporter from the Newark Daily Advertiser visited Jackalow and found him to be intelligent, noting that he spent most of his time reading but was not proficient in spoken English. Jackalow protested his innocence to the reporter and explained that he was Japanese, from the Ryukyu Islands.
Indictment
Jackalow's indictment, in the United States Circuit Court for the District of New Jersey, was scheduled for Tuesday, September 25. Justice Robert Cooper Grier, riding circuit, and Judge Mahlon Dickerson, of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, presided in Newark. Jackalow, having been moved to the Mercer jail, attended. U.S. Attorney Cannon stated that he needed three or four days to bring in witnesses from Connecticut and elsewhere. The grand jurors were sworn, and Justice Grier instructed them on the law, specifically the Act of 1820, which provided:
Justice Grier further instructed the grand jury that it was unnecessary for the government to produce the corpse to prosecute a murder. But, on September 27, while the grand jury was still sitting, Jonathan Leete's clothed body was recovered in Goose Creek, Jamaica, Queens. The body was shown to the Leetes' sister for identification, and a portion of the clothing was sent to his mother in Guilford for further identification, which was inconclusive. The forehead of the corpse bore "two distinct wounds, as if the result of blows from a hatchet or hammer." The coroner cited the wounds as the cause of death. The Leete family offered their opinion that Elijah had been at the wheel, Jackalow at the lookout, and Jonathan asleep in the berth prior to the murders. (It was the habit of the Leete brothers to sleep fully clothed.)